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NHL lockout: Messages mixed on progress in labour talks

Steve Fehr, the NHLPA’s special counsel, sounded mildly hopeful Monday on issues like revenue sharing, but Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby is finding it difficult to be optimistic.

There’s still hope that the NHL will drop the puck on a 70-game season if a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached in the next week or two. (Andre Ringuette / Getty Images)

By Kevin McGranSports Reporter

Tues., Nov. 13, 2012

Maybe it’s time a mediator stepped in and helped solve the NHL lockout. The NHL Players’ Association likes the sound of that idea.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Steve Fehr, the association’s special counsel, said Monday. “We’ve made it plain we’re open to the concept. The NHL isn’t terribly interested in it.”

With the NHLPA in concession mode on the biggest issues, such as salaries and contract rights, it’s perhaps no surprise they’d ask for outside help while the NHL probably thinks it’s doing a good enough job on its own in terms of getting its costs down.

Burke was a guest speaker as well, but out of loyalty to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and fearing a fine for speaking out of turn, Burke did not speak about the lockout.

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“This is killing me,” he joked at one point. “Not having anything to say is a very difficult position for me. I have plenty to say, and I will say it at the most appropriate time.”

Fehr, union head Donald Fehr’s brother, did have a few telling moments that leaned toward the hopeful side.

For one, Fehr said the two sides were finally very close on revenue sharing.

He also outlined the three key remaining areas of dispute. He said the players were willing “for the moment” to go to a 50-50 split on revenue sharing.

“The only question is over what period of time, and what’s the transition method,” said Fehr. “In some ways, we thought we were getting close in that area.

“We thought the gap was quite a bit narrower than it had been before. . . . They came back with their own chart that showed the gap was much, much wider than we thought.”

On the contentious issues of player contract rights — including five-year limits on contracts and a longer wait to unrestricted free agency — Fehr sounded hopeful again.

“It’s hard to believe anyone is going to drive the industry bus over the cliff over that,” said Fehr, arguing the owners should give in on that since the players have surrendered so much on salary.

Then there’s the contentious issue of how to deal with a lockout-shortened season in terms of paying players who have insisted all along that owners honour contracts.

“How does it affect your proposals this year in terms of who pays for what,” said Fehr. “You might suspect a lot of angry players will say we didn’t start this fight, we didn’t want this fight, it was unnecessary, therefore it’s not really our problem.”

The league has cancelled games to the end of November, but there’s still hope a 70-game season could be played if a deal is reached in the next week or two.

Some believe that’s even the endgame, that the NHL is following the NBA’s playbook, which saw the basketball league play a 66-game schedule last season following a fall lockout.

The day-to-day accounts of progress in lockout talks read a lot like the stock exchange. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. But it’s always finding a way to move forward.

“It’s just frustrating,” said Crosby. “You kind of hear the same things coming out of the meetings all the time. Just waiting to hear something new from their side. It’s almost to the point where you don’t want to ask because you know you’re going to get the same answer you got a week before.

“There’s no reason we can’t figure something out. I really want to be optimistic. It’s not easy right now. It’s just a roller coaster.”

There were no formal talks Monday, and none announced for Tuesday. Both sides may well have decided to back away to let Monday’s Hockey Hall of Fame inductions take centre stage.

“I don’t think it’s easy for the fan to understand,” said Burke. “They don’t identify with the income bracket with either side.

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